Improvement in machines for rolling knife-blades



UNITED STATES PATENT OFFICE.

WILLIAM P.. LATHROP, OF WIN CHESTER, CONNECTICUT.

lMPROVEMENT lN MACHINES FOR ROLLING KNIFE-BLADES.

Specification forming part of Letters Patent No. 42,005, dated March 22,1864.

To @ZZ whom it may concern.-

Be it known that I, WILLIAM P. LATHROP, of Winchester, Litchiield,county and State of Connecticut, have invented a new and improvedcombination of dies and guides for making knife-blades, particularlyadapted to the manufacture of table-cutlery, the object of which is toform two blades expeditiously,with little waste of metal, at one and theSametime, and with one heat, connected at the edges (in this machine thedies are so constructed that the blades, when passed from under therollers, are connected at the edge) to be cut apart by a press, die,shears, or other mechanical contrivance.

The peculiarity of the revolving dies which form the blades is, theygive a taper, a bevel, and a curvilineal forni to the blade, as seen insection N o. 3, herewith connected. .I use the sheet-steel of a gagethickness equal to the thickness desired for the back of the knife atthe bolster, the sheet of metal to be of a width sufticient for thelength of the blank for a knife cut transversely with a press, die, orotherwise. The plate may be reversed at every cut to compensate for theangular cut which Will give each blank a true taper from heel to point,or frombolster to point,.so as to admit it easily between the lateraltransverse guides of the dies between the cylinders'. These blanks mustbe of a width and length to contain a sufiicient quantity ofmetal to4make a blade perfect in all its proportions when rolled to any desiredsize. A slot is cut in the broad end of the blanks, as seen in section No. 3, letter A, either with the die when the blank is cut from thesheet, or by a subsequent operation,as most economical. When the doubleblank has been passed through the rollers, it is to be cut apartlongitudinally along the dotted line, as seenin section 3. The heel ofthe blank or tenon is now iitted to enter the slot ofa'malleablecast-irou (or other metal) bolster. The blanks aresufficiently heated and taken by the operator with a pair of tongs, thelips of which will take hold of the blank at letter A, just as far asthe square portion of the slot extends into the blank. The blank ispushed between the rollers C within the lateral transverse guides D,until a stop on the under lip of the tongs meets the longitudinalguide-bar B, and as the rollers revolve outwardly from the center theforming-dies E, as seen in section No. l, meet the blank on each sideclose to the lip of the tongs, rolling it from the dies still held inthe tongs of the operator, forming a couplet of perfect blades. The diesare strongly fastened into rollers C, one die in each. These are soshaped as to forni the obverse and reverse of two perfect blades whencut through the center, as seen in section No. 3. v

The great object of rolling blades in couplets is not only a saving ofmuch expense and time, but it counteracts the great difliculty met within rolling a single blade Witha thin edge-viz., 'the tendency to crookfrom the thin edge. By this method that tendency is entirely obviated,each blade counteracting the effect of its fellow blade.

The transverse lateral guides are forthe purpose of .keeping the blankin exact position between the dies; also, to form a full square back oneach side ofthe blank, and to prevent the side lash of the rollers.These guides are sufficiently strong to control the dies in the rollers,which exactly fill the space between them. Theredsenii-longitudinallinesin section 3 show the curvilineal or winding form given to the blades bypassing through between the roller-dies.

What I claim as my invention, and desire to secure by Letters Patent,is-

The combinationof mechanism for making knife-blades economically,expeditiously, and in a way not now in use, as herein described, or byany other mode substantially the same.

W. P. LATHROP. [E s] Witnesses:

E. S. WooDEoRD, y ANNIE C. WooDEoRD.

